Reuven Firestone
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199860302
- eISBN:
- 9780199950621
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199860302.003.0011
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
By the third decade of the twentieth century secular Labor Zionism dominated the Zionist Movement and actively engaged in redefining Jewish identity in non-religious, secular nationalist terms. At ...
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By the third decade of the twentieth century secular Labor Zionism dominated the Zionist Movement and actively engaged in redefining Jewish identity in non-religious, secular nationalist terms. At the very same time, an independent thinker and charismatic rabbi named Abraham Isaac Kook became the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of British Mandate Palestine. Kook was not typical of any of the camps, whether pro- or anti-Zionist, but attracted a following of idealistic and mystical Orthodox Jews to his atypical approach to living in and settling the Land of Israel. His obscure and mystical writings became virtually sacred texts among some, and exerted a profound influence on a small cadre of talented religious Zionists. Among his innovative ideas was a modern mystical view that war has a progressive role in the divine scheme. Kook was the first prominent thinker to discuss divinely authorized war outside of the parameters of the traditional rabbinic worldview.Less
By the third decade of the twentieth century secular Labor Zionism dominated the Zionist Movement and actively engaged in redefining Jewish identity in non-religious, secular nationalist terms. At the very same time, an independent thinker and charismatic rabbi named Abraham Isaac Kook became the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of British Mandate Palestine. Kook was not typical of any of the camps, whether pro- or anti-Zionist, but attracted a following of idealistic and mystical Orthodox Jews to his atypical approach to living in and settling the Land of Israel. His obscure and mystical writings became virtually sacred texts among some, and exerted a profound influence on a small cadre of talented religious Zionists. Among his innovative ideas was a modern mystical view that war has a progressive role in the divine scheme. Kook was the first prominent thinker to discuss divinely authorized war outside of the parameters of the traditional rabbinic worldview.
